Chapter 1
Sarutobi Hiruzen was ten, not even out of the academy, when he witnessed one of his classmates murder his friend in cold blood. Mei Aki had pounced on Shimura Danzo, her blue hair fluttering around her like a halo of moonlight –her golden eyes wide and wild as she wrapped her hands around Danzo’s neck. It was a horrifying thirty seconds. No one understood what was happening –not Hiruzen and not Danzo.
It was the moment Hiruzen knew there had to be a god. Because he had seen the devil.
Danzo and Hiruzen had been skipping rocks, contemplating who their team would be. Danzo was trying to incite Hiruzen –eternally a one-sided rivalry. That was when Aki had appeared and gone after Danzo.
And then, as Danzo laid unmoving on the ground, Aki had turned to Hiruzen, a feral grin on her face, “That’s one.”
She disappeared in the wind the moment after she spoke.
Hiruzen ran to Danzo, screaming and crying and wondering –if he was a prodigy, what was she?
Hiruzen was twelve when he received an updated Bingo book. Among the new entries was a photo of a teenager –unmistakable even after two years.
Blue hair and golden eyes, a feral grin, and a name.
MEI AKI, S RANK THREAT
KILL ON SIGHT
He grit his teeth and continued to work with Tobirama. He would never be powerless again.
Hiruzen was fifteen when his Bingo book was once again updated. He hadn’t expected anything to change, nothing shocking anyway. New missing-nin joined the ranks every year and other S rank shinobi progressed all the time.
But he had assumed that Mei Aki had met her demise. No one had heard from her in years. That’s an unfathomable time for a shinobi.
Yet here she was, with that same monstrous grin.
MEI “YOKAI” AKI
SSS+ RANK THREAT
FLEE ON SIGHT
Hiruzen felt unease curl in his gut. But war was brewing. He did not have the time to dwell on Mei Aki and her new codename.
Hiruzen was twenty-four when he took three children under his wing. Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. It had been nine years since Aki was last seen.
Until she descended upon Hiruzen’s student with a force unparalleled.
Once again Hiruzen was watching her murder someone he cared about. Only, this time he could fight back.
The God of Shinobi stood against the Yokai. And the God was felled to his knees with jutsu that had never been seen.
Orochimaru was dead.
Years passed, wars came and went. Aki did not appear before Hiruzen again.
But he knew she lived.
Other villages were reporting children dead, murdered by the Yokai.
Hiruzen wanted his vengeance. And he was willing to wait.